If you haven’t heard the controversy about the bad calls this year by World Cup referees, you may be just as far behind in technology as the whole FIFA organization.

At the top of the list of teams who are speculated to have been eliminated because of an obvious referee mistake is England, who scored a goal that bounced from the top post straight down into the goal. The ball was immediately swooped up and thrown out of the goal by the keeper from Germany. The closest referee was 10 yards down the line, and apparently he nor his assistant saw the goal and no goal was awarded. According to the cameras set up at the post, that ball was at least a foot behind the line. But, what the referee says is what goes, even if 40,000 people and a hundred cameras witnessed otherwise.

Heavy controversy is also surrounding fellow eliminated team Mexico, who is angry about the a goal scored against them from Argentina’s Tevez while he was clearly in offside position. Although the replays were shown across the stadium proving otherwise, the referee didn’t call the offside so the decision was made to allow the goal. (Since that instance of angry fans, FIFA has said they will now stop showing replays in the stands).

FIFA president Sett Blatter spoke to the press in a briefing on Tuesday, apologizing to the organizing bodies for England and Mexico and their soccer teams, saying there were mistakes made last Sunday in terms of officiating as both of those teams were eliminated. In the process of that apology, Blatter pointed to the future and the possibility of new technology coming into play.

In his statement, Blatter put it simply, “It is obvious after the experiences so far we have made in this World Cup, it would be a nonsense to not reopen the fighting for technology in the business meetings. The only principal were are going to bring back for discussion is the goal line technology.”

This statement doesn’t mean much for teams like Mexico (or the United States for that matter) who had blown calls against them due to fouls and offsides. It also won’t help the teams that had controversial red cards against their players and goal keepers. That element of the game will still be at the mercy of the referee, even if cameras from every angle prove the calls are bunk. But, by keeping the replays to a minimum we are still allowing for a naturally flowing game with good momentum and a healthy dose of human error. Controversy and debate is one element that keeps soccer alive. Without it there would be no press, no angry fans, and no passion.

Personally it pained me to see United States get the goal thrown out against Slovenia that nearly cost them a chance into the finals, with a call that was so unclear even the referee himself would not explain. But they persevered nonetheless and proved they were the better team in that match (and what a comeback!). As much as I wanted to write about it there seemed to be no point of yelling “no fair!” because they came back and proved they could get there either way. Taking a look at England, it was a shame that the goal was disallowed, but it wasn’t as if that disallowed goal made their fate. Germany cleaned up and proved to be the better team with a 4-1 win.

In the end when we look at who is sitting on top, it doesn’t have to do with one red card or one disallowed goal. It all comes down to one thing, right now, at this moment in history: which soccer team will beat the odds to go home with the World Cup.

About the AuthorSubscribe to author's RSS feed
Written by Crystal Rose
I have been behind the scenes for ProSportsBlogging.com and have been a part of the inner workings with Onvi Media (onvi.com). Since the World Cup, I have stepped out from backstage to become a blogger and write about sports I love to watch the most. I'm from L.A. and naturally support the USA in soccer, but I also favor England, France, Spain, Italy and Brazil. This year I'm also watching out for South Africa. I also like baseball and follow the Dodgers - GO BLUE!

I totally agree! And it seems like it takes an offense against a team like England to get something out of the officials, and only after the whole country complains. Any comments or apologies for the U.S.? Not that I’ve heard of.

I’d like to see a little technology in the game. Replays don’t have to take over the game but would be nice in some instances.

The problem also is that, MOST FIFA REFEREES WANT TO BE STARS OR CELEBRITIES TOO AND MOST OF THEM ALREADY THINK THEY ARE! Now, with that in mind, do you think they are in favor of technology? No, because in most cases, either they think they are so good that they don’t need any help, or, they think, at least subconsciously, that technology would bring down their image or feel of importance. Would we have thought as highly about the great Collina if he had video review? It is a huge problem because the Referee Federations are offering so little or nothing in terms of how to implement technology into the game and they are the ones who should be at the forefront of this problem. And implementation is the biggest problem. I think goal line review can be added right away. the 4th official just checks the replay on his screen on the touchline; it only takes seconds. You cant have video review for the offisde; it would work in the case that the player was offisde and the referee missed and so you just bring it back for a free kick where he was offside. But what if a player is not offside, scores and the referee signals offside? Do you give a free kick to the team that got that bad call? That doesn’t remove the error though and you cant give a goal because technically the play is dead where the referee thought it was offside. The only solution for the offside is to have a computerized system that tells you if its offside or not, but that will take time. For now the only thing they can do is goal line review.

I agree. There’s absolutely no reason to not have goal line technology. No excuse. The World Cup comes around every four years. Don’t let a team get robbed of a goal and possibly a victory because you don’t want to join the 21st century. It mars the world’s beautiful game.